


Simplify

by cecilantro



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-13
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 17:19:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16288643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilantro/pseuds/cecilantro
Summary: Caleb and Molly are fighting. (Again.)





	Simplify

**Author's Note:**

> [Simplify - Young The Giant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZuEdsr2s7M)

“You’ve got to fucking _stop_ charging in like that, Mollymauk!” Caleb rounds on them the second the door closes, “It- It killed you once. I can’t-”

“If I _don’t_ charge in, the whole group gets taken out.” Molly hisses, steps up and pulls their shoulders back in cold anger pride, “I play distraction, and everyone gets a chance to get in.”

“You play distraction and you stay _far_ too close. I almost- that Fireball, Molly, it could have killed you. Again.”

He shifts a hand to the singed lapels of their coat. Jester has promised to Mend it in the morning, but right now, it’s a horrible reminder to Caleb of Molly being tossed from the explosion, loose and burning dimly in the winter air, splayed broken on the ground. They’d come too close, far too close, Caleb never wants them to be that close again.

“I’d die for them a thousand times.” Molly’s voice is the low, rumbling hiss that tells Caleb they’re truly angry, bordering on their native Infernal, “I’d die for you a thousand more.”

“I don’t _want_ you to _die_ for me, Mollymauk.” Caleb straightens from his natural slump to emphasise the height difference between them, like a weak attempt at trying to hold superiority,

“Then what do you want me to do?” Molly throws their hands up and turns away from Caleb to begin stripping their clothes. The singed coat is tossed across the back of a chair, and even from here, Caleb can see the scar on their back where the glaive had punctured through from their chest.

 

He can’t see that again. He won’t see that again. Molly’s eyes, empty and dull.

 

“I want you to live for me.” Caleb says, voice hoarse, “I want you to- to retire with me. I want to stop the fighting, and the danger, I want-”

“We can’t _leave,_ not now. We can’t leave our friends. Our _family._ ” Molly hasn’t turned to face him, “Because that’s what they are, Caleb. And _I want_ to hear you say it.”

“They- they are strong enough without me. Without you. We lived without you once, remember?”

“Yeah, you left me in the ground for a year before you got around to rezzing me.” Molly turns, hurt on their face and in their eyes, flickering with the fires of life behind them.

“We didn’t have a _choice._ ” Caleb’s fury returns in full force, “We couldn’t find a Cleric strong enough, and by the time we did, you’d been dead too long for it to be easy.”

“I wasn’t brought out of the ground to be easy to have around.” Molly shrugs, and the fire behind their eyes turns to ice, they study their own hands, and Caleb crosses the room.

“I- we saved. For months, just to pay to have you back.” Caleb says, voice quiet and dangerous, “Do you know what I did in the month whilst you recovered? I copied spells. Spells that I couldn’t afford to copy for the six months prior, because all of my money was falling into your pool. Not because you are hard to have around, but because you are the only one- save for Nott- that is easy to be around all of the time.”

  
Molly’s fists are balled and their jaw is set but they don’t move, or speak.

  
“I needed you back because I love you.” Caleb says seriously, and meets their eyes, finds a maelstrom of ice and fire behind the crimson, “I want you safe because I love you.”

 

There’s a silence then, and Molly swallows three times before Caleb sees the first glimmer of tears springing to their eyes.

 

“I love you too.” Their voice sounds rough and stretched, like it’s being forced over their self restraint. “I love you too. Why isn’t- why isn’t this easy? I thought love was meant to be easy. Why do we keep fighting?”

“We fight,” Caleb’s voice softens, he takes their hands from their sides, “Because we love. It is not meant to be easy, it is not meant to be hard all of the time, either. It is meant to be a dedication.”

Molly takes a breath, and it shudders in their chest, they tug at Caleb’s hands until he rests his forehead to theirs.

“I have to charge into battle.” Molly says quietly, “It is, quite literally, my job in the team. But we have Jester, and we have Clay, and I have you. And you’re always here to welcome me home at night.”

“We don’t have a _home._ ” Caleb rolls his closed eyes, “We never stop.”

“I have a home.” Molly rebukes, “And it’s with me everywhere I go. _He’s_ with me everywhere I go.”

Caleb doesn’t need them to explain. They have always been eloquent like this, when they need to be- not always eloquent, but when it comes down to the heart-to-hearts, it’s their skill.

  
He tilts his face and presses a kiss to Molly’s lips. It’s gentle, at first, and grows more desperate. Not in the way that Caleb understands to mean that Molly wants sex, but in the way that tells him that they need him close and tight to them, the way that reminds Caleb of fighting for breath when they’re drowning in a storm-stricken sea.  
His coat hits the floor and is abandoned with his boots and Molly’s pants, they drop to the bed and Molly pulls him as close as they can by the front of his shirt, kissing him with a fierceness that concerns Caleb as much as it endears him.

  
“I don’t want to die again.” Molly gasps between kisses, “I don’t want to leave you again.”

“You won’t.” Caleb promises, one hand fisted in Molly’s hair and the other on the small of their back, he feels their tail wind around his ankle as they tangle their legs under the covers.

  
The kissing slows, eventually, as Molly begins to cry again, harder this time and Caleb can do nothing to stop it.

  
“We can help our family do what they need to do.” Caleb tells Molly, their foreheads rest against one another, “And then we can retire together.”

“No more fighting.” Molly hiccups, “No more death.”

“No more death.” Caleb says it like a promise, “We can make it simple again.”

“It’s never been simple.” Molly’s laugh sounds broken, and they wind close to Caleb, who kisses the hair between their horns.

“Then we can break new ground.” and that sounds like a promise, too. “I love you, Molly.”

“I love you too.” Molly says, quiet, and they tilt to kiss Caleb with the salt of their tears on their lips. “I want it to be simple.”

  
“It will be.” Caleb says, firm and determined. “I promise, it will be.”


End file.
